Dr. Robert Frederickson, also known as Mongo the Magnificent,
is a criminologist, ex-circus headliner, martial-arts expert, and private
eye, who also happens to be a dwarf. The Mongo series is a blend of
mystery, suspense, science fiction, and the supernatural.

In addition to the Mongo novels, Chesbro wrote several novels
featuring other characters from the Mongo universe, as well as a few
standalone novels, including Bone and 2000's The Keeper.

George Chesbro died on November 18, 2008, at the age of 68.

Updated December 4, 2014

2014-12-04 — Review of City of Whispering Stone

A recent post on the blog Pretty Sinister
Books reviewed City of Whispering Stone and discussed the Mongo
books in general. You can read the post here.

2014-07-20 — Blog "Casual Debris" reviews Chesbro

The blog Casual Debris has
posted great reviews of George Chesbro's novella "Strange Prey" and the
first Mongo novel, Shadow of a Broken Man. The latter review especially
focuses on the ties between the two, which both feature the character
Victor Rafferty.

The news is spreading throughout the 'net that HBO is considering a series based on
George Chesbro's The Beasts of Valhalla starring
Peter Dinklage!

The report comes from an interview If.com.au
did with writer Justin Monjo, in which he revealed that he had written a pilot based on
the The Beasts of Valhalla. The show would be produced by Ben Stiller's
Red Hour Productions.

Rather that regurgitate what various sites are regurgitating, here are a couple of links
to articles about this:

The IF article quotes Monjo as saying he read the Mongo books years ago, but never
could picture a suitable actor for the role until he saw Peter Dinklage play
Tyrion in Game of Thrones. I guess he never visted this site and read about the
movie version of An Affair of Sorcerers with Peter Dinkglage that
never happened back in 2007....

Blogger Lou Hough recently wrote a blog in
response to Paul Krugman's column about the problems of the Republican Party.
By sheer coincidence, she recently picked up a copy of George Chesbro's
Dream of a Falling Eagle:

Ever notice how some things seem meant to be? On Saturday, July 27, I checked out
several mysteries from the local library. The intent was to celebrate my seventy-fifth
birthday week in style. It's quite remarkable how much we can learn even from media
meant to entertain. I'd never read any Mongo mysteries and find it so curious that I
selected this particular one just when I was writing articles about Paul Krugman's column
claiming there is something wrong with the soul of the Republican Party.

Here are her articles. The Chesbro book is mentioned in the latter two.

I just discovered today that MJF Books (Barnes & Noble) reissued
the anthology Unholy Orders in November 2008. I found a copy at my
local B&N today for $7.98. The book includes George Chesbro's short story
"Model Town."

2009-07-30 — Another tribute article

I just found that the online magazine Mysterical-E included an
article about George in their 2008 "In Memoriam" article. The piece
on George is about 1/3 of the way down the page.

Chesbro fan Jon Jordan has written a very nice tribute to George Chesbro in
the latest issue of Crimespree
magazine (issue 28, Jan/Feb 2009). The folks at Crimespree have made
Jon's tribute available as
a PDF download.

George Chesbro's last short story, "Home Inversion," will be
published in the June 2009 issue of
Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery
Magazine,
which should be in stores in April 2009. The story will arrive 40 years after
that same magazine published George's first short story,
"Snake in the Tower,"
in March 1969.

I am very sad to report that George Chesbro died this morning after an
illness.

Like all of you, I am a huge fan of George's work. My friendship with
him began in 1999 when I sent him a letter describing the fan website
that I had created for his work. He liked what I'd done, and over the
next couple of months, the fan site was transformed into Dangerous
Dwarf, the official George C. Chesbro website.

I've very much enjoyed my friendship with George and Robin over the years, and
I will miss being able to correspond with him.

I'm sure Mongo and Garth will miss him, too.

Hunter
Webmaster for DangerousDwarf.com

NEW BALTIMORE - George Clark Chesbro, 68, of New Baltimore, died
Tuesday, November 18, 2008 at St. Peter's Hospital.

Born in Washington, D.C. on June 4, 1940, he was the son of the late
George W. and Maxine (Sharpe) Chesbro. An author of over 25 novels and
nearly 100 short stories, George was a recipient of an Ellery Queen
Award and had served as president of the Mystery Writers Association of
America. Earlier in his career, George had worked as a special
education teacher at Pearl River and at the Rockland Psychiatric Center
where he worked with emotionally troubled teens.

Survivors include his wife, Robin N. Chesbro; a son, Mark Chesbro;, a
daughter Michelle Chesbro; two stepdaughters, Rachael and Leah Gass; a
sister, Judith (Richard) Ragone and many nieces, nephews, great-nieces
and great-nephews.

Services are private at the convenience of the family.

In lieu of flowers, those who wish may send a remembrance in his name
to the Mohawk and Hudson River Humane Society, 3 Oakland Ave., Menands,
NY 12204.

10/21/08

New fiction! George Chesbro has sold a new short story, "Home
Inversion," to Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. We don't know
when it will appear, but as soon as I find out, I'll post it here!

The bad news is that there is no U.S. publisher for the novel yet.
However, a French translation of the book will be published in France by
Rivages in June 2006. The French title is Le Seigneur des Glaces et de la Solitude, and
it can be ordered from Alapage.com, a French online bookseller. The ISBN number is
2-7436-1532-X.

It is not known at this time if or when a U.S. edition will be published. My
fingers are crossed....

04/16/06

No recent news yet about the upcoming movie. Soon, I hope....

A Chesbro Book Cover Gallery has been
added to the site. It contains scans of covers of various Chesbro editions from
around the world.

George Chesbro's 1991 short story "Priests" is being reprinted in a
new anthology, Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine Presents Fifty Years of Crime and Suspense.
The anthology is edited by Linda Landrigan and will be published by Pegasus
Books in June 2006.

Thanks to George C. Chesbro, Roger Eakes, Mari Hall, Bill
Berry, Joan Scott, Becky Gilliam, and Greykell Dutton for various
help in putting this site together!